This relates to use of alias/logical names, in place of physical addresses, for establishing communications between entities in a data processing network (storage resources, human operators, etc.). More particularly, it relates to methods for enabling computing nodes in a network to operate as peers in respect to creating and using such names (i.e. communicate directly with each other), and thereby avoid reliance on a central or master communication node whose failure could prevent further name handling activities.
Existing distributed data processing networks have taken a centralized approach to support of alias name usage. This entails translations of messages directed to named entities into messages directed to network address locations at which respective entities are physically located.
This tends to increase the volume of communication traffic required to be handled by the network, as well as to increase the probability of error in any one communication dependent on such translation. Furthermore, if the translations from name-directed messages to location-directed messages are carried out by a "master" computing system at one node, failure of the latter system could disable the network.
The present invention seeks to avoid these difficulties by using a distributed approach to creation of names and the use of names for communication. It does not require a central directory, although it does not preclude use of such.